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Immigrants focus on arduous legal path

They spend years bringing family to America and becoming U.S. citizens. So why shouldn't others?

By ROBIN STEIN
Published April 13, 2006

	[Times photo: Carrie Pratt]
	Yelena Ivanova, left, a Palm Harbor resident from Ukraine, talks with Anna Lisina, right, also from Ukraine but now living in Dunedin, while Galina Myalik, a Holiday resident from Belarus, listens Wednesday in an adult English literacy class in Tarpon Springs.

TARPON SPRINGS - Illegal immigrants are protesting, Congress is stymied with the task of deciding whether they should receive amnesty and radio airwaves are polarized by pundits.

But for students in the Pinellas County Schools Adult English Literacy class in Tarpon Springs, legal residency is a prerequisite. For some it has meant years of anxiety and paperwork. They hail from countries such as Belarus, Peru, China, Mexico and Ukraine. On Wednesday, they talked about their experiences coming to the United States.

For Hetal Shah, a 34-year-old accountant from India, it has taken 20 years for her family to be assembled here. Her sister-in-law came first, then her mother-in-law. Her husband arrived three years ago, and last year, Shah and their child finally arrived.

"People come to America for a new life because they need to make money for their family," said Alex Ivanova, a 25-year-old who arrived from Ukraine nine months ago. "Maybe America can help, so they can work and not be afraid."

Ivanova, along with his two younger sisters, were among the 17 students in the intermediate-level English class taught by Jean Cook, one of the two instructors at Tarpon Spring's satellite site.

Cook said that since July, about 70 students from 34 countries have come each day to learn English in a back room of the Athens Executive Center, a few blocks from the Sponge Docks.

In the intermediate-level class, English skills vary widely. Students range in age from 20 to 73. In their native countries, they worked as nurses, factory supervisors, accountants.

Syti Hyski, 58, was an engineering professor in Albania until he moved here 10 months ago. Now he struggles to bridge the language and cultural gaps that sometimes make life hard and lonely.

"I'm tired, I want to relax," he said, his words punctuated by an uneasy caution.

The students' diversity presents some communication hurdles. But on some things they agree.

Everyone aspires to get 100 percent on their workbook assignments.

Everyone loves Cook, who started the Tarpon Springs program a decade ago.

Everyone wants to help decorate for today's fundraising banquet, geared toward raising $12,000 in annual rent for the Tarpon Springs site, which the county stopped funding last year.

And almost uniformly, they oppose proposals that would turn illegal immigrants already in the country into felons, but they support steps that would stop the future flow of illegal immigrants.

While none said they attended rallies or protests, all are following the immigration debate. Some have a personal stake, such as Noemy Mericle, from Costa Rica.

Mericle owned a woman's clothing boutique until she married an American pilot. She said she just sponsored her sister and two of her sister's three children, but laws prohibit her from submitting paperwork for other family members here.

"If (amnesty) is approved, that is okay," she said. "But if not, we are worried. What will happen?"

Now though, the students are focused on navigating confusing workplace protocols and finding friends to practice with them on their new language skills.

"You know you have arrived when you dream in English," Cook told the class.

[Last modified April 13, 2006, 00:52:17]